SEA CITIES – EUROPEAN CONSORTIUM LAUNCHED

NEW SCIENTIST – 8 April 2017

Due to my WORDPRESS ignorance and incompetence – this article is a mixed bag of news, highlights, headings and styles – which WordPress does not seem to provide the tools to fix. The two brief paragraphs immediately below are taken from New Scientist magazine, relevant to sea level rise – which is forecast to be 3 metres. The image above is one I made a few years ago, to encourage nations to build amphibious energy platforms, to build cities on and to generate green-energy. I have copied an article about the proposed Dogger-Bank sea city and power centre – which actually reports on Norway quitting the consortium; but I understand the project will go ahead. The letter at the end is one I wrote to the UK Prime Minister, urging amphibious cities as a major UK industry.

I would like to use different fonts – perhaps boxes – perhaps font sizes and colours to differentiate the sources – but I haven’t found how to format fonts in WordPress. Despite the printing mess-up – the news is interesting and important. NCH

NEW SCIENTIST: The worst-case scenario for sea-level rise just got even worse. If the latest numbers are correct, oceans could rise almost 3 metres by 2100. The new figure includes rapid loss of mass from the Antarctic ice sheet, and tops the 2013 IPCC estimate by 2 metres (Environmental Research Letters, doi.org/b46w)

******

NEW SCIENTIST: Warming drives Alaskan glacier to its lowest point in 900 years

“A small temperature increase of less than 2°C is sufficient to destabilise a glacier”

A MAJOR glacier in Alaska has retreated to its lowest point in 900 years.

Glaciers around the world are in retreat. But the Columbia glacier is one of the most dramatic and well-documented cases, as well as the largest contributor to sea level rise out of the 50 or so glaciers that descend to the sea in Alaska.

To put the current ebb in the context of the past millennium, Anders Carlson at Oregon State University and his colleagues bored down into the mud at the bottom of the bay that the glacier flows into, Prince William Sound, on the southern coast of Alaska. They then examined the layers of sediment deposited over the past 1600 years or so, and also looked at the age of tree trunks left on the surface by the retreating glacier. From this, they worked out that the last time the glacier was this low was 900 years ago

SSE’s director of development, Mike Seaton, said: “This acquisition represents the next step in the development of the Dogger Bank Offshore Wind development, SSE will continue to work alongside the remaining partners in the Forewind consortium to progress these projects.”

“By increasing our share, we strengthen Statoil’s long-term portfolio materiality and gain additional optionality. This is in line with our strategy to gradually complement Statoil’s oil and gas portfolio with profitable renewable energy and other low-carbon solutions,” said Stephen Bull, Statoil’s senior vice president for offshore wind.

Dogger Bank comprises four 1.2GW projects, located 130km from the UK’s east coast. The four projects, to be built in two phases, were permited in 2015.

In September 2016, Statkraft announced plans to divest from its offshore activities entirely, claiming the industry was “too capital intensive”.

It agreed with regular project partner Statoil to transfer its 40% share and operatorship of the 317MW Sheringham Shoal project.

Statoil originally also had a 40% stake in the project, the remaining 20% is owned by the Green Investment Bank.

Statkraft also said it was considering withdrawing from the under-construction 402MW Dudgeon site. Dudgeon is also part-owned by renewable energy firm Masdar and Statoil, which is also acting as the project operator.

Statkraft said at the time it would continue developing the permitted 900MW Triton Knoll offshore wind project with Innogy to a final investment decision before selling its share.

Today, New Scientist magazine, Page 8, “Five Metres & Counting” by Michael Le Page, says sea level will rise 20 metres. 5 years ago, science predicted sea-level rise of “5mm within the next century”. That scientific consensus was 4,000 times too small. And, in my “futurist’s” view, was decades out on timing. I think a 20 metres rise is still several times too little.

Please re-read my 15th June 2013 letter and blog (link) and mobilise the UK’s formidable, world class, marine engineering industry to specialise in building amphibious homes and permanently floating major cities. The whole world will need this highly profitable industry – and it is the most efficient and pro-active way to re-house drowned London.

Your colleague, Mayor Boris Johnson MP, was right to propose an island /floating Thames Estuary airport. It is practical, necessary and economic.

Yours truly

Noel Hodson

PS – And, I would be grateful if you could persuade the MoT to fund our green freight transport project, which is both flood proof and simple technology, and far cheaper than any existing freight transport, using only 10% of the energy. Their horrified reaction to date is “But its NEW! Mr Hodson. Its NEW!”